274 FOREIGN TRA VEL CHAP, vi n 



Minister of Finance. Of the short time in Turin 

 Mrs. Ramsay received the following pleasant narra 

 tive : From the post office I went to the Ministry 

 of Finance. The attendant in the ante-room, doubtful 

 of a stranger in a wideawake, said the Minister was 

 engaged with the Minister of Home Affairs, and would 

 be so until late in the evening. I sent in my card, and 

 he came back with a changed countenance and ushered 

 me in. Sella shook me by both hands, and said he 

 was uncommonly glad to see me, and that if I would 

 wait till he wrote a note, he would himself take me to 

 Gastaldi. . . . Gastaldi received me like an old friend, 

 and he has been almost constantly with me ever 

 since. . . . 



I have just come back from the Ministry a 

 decorated man, with white and gold cross and green 

 ribbon ! The royal letter and decree are to follow. 

 . . . I leave to-night, and cross Mont Cenis, 

 arresting myself perhaps at Macon for the second 

 night. 



The knighthood thus conferred through the in 

 strumentality of Signer Sella was that of the order 

 of SS. Maurice and Lazarus a distinction offered, 

 not only in recognition of the scientific attainments of 

 the Local Director of the Geological Survey of Great 

 Britain, but also as a mark of the appreciation of his 

 services to Italian officers sent at various times to 

 England on missions of scientific inquiry. 



The end of this month of Alpine rambling con 

 cluded Ramsay s journeys abroad as an active geologist. 

 For eight years he did not again leave this country. 

 He had now practically accomplished the foreign travel 

 of his life, and though he was able in later years to 

 revisit some of the scenes which he had traversed in 



